What solutions might we need for the future home? We set students from Umeå Institute of Design a design challenge to find out.
In the eighth year of Electrolux Group’s cooperation with Umeå Institute of Design (UID), Advanced Product Design students had just four weeks to develop their ideas. Within this year’s theme, “The Future Home,” student teams each received a different focus: The Mindful Home, The Agentive Home, The Hearthscape and The Resilient Home.
“We wanted to challenge these students as we challenge ourselves to imagine the future home,” says Timo Mashiyi-Veikkola, Head of Design Research. “The students’ ideas help us think differently.”
The student ideas:
NIBBL
For The Resilient Home, the NIBBL team imagined a family at a summer home in Sweden. They naturally thought of making jam, a ritual that reduces waste, preserves food and keeps it fresh and nutritious. NIBBL is a smart jam maker that recognizes the fruit, cooks it – no constant stirring! – guides the user on adding sugar, and fills and sterilizes the jam, marking it with the date. It takes the rich tradition of jam making into the future.
Student design team: Emily Klein, Murat Can Habire, Tejas Mitra, Viktor Strömberg.
OWL
For The Agentive Home, the OWL team aimed to design a laundry product that’s helpful but not intrusive – one that takes over tasks and refreshes clothing to help it last longer. OWL scans clothes, detecting the type of fabric and stains, then steams, deodorizes and scents them accordingly. A smart “wand” enables spot cleaning. OWL is sized and designed for use in the bedroom, a hallway or walk-in closet.
Student design team: Marija Kucurski, Rohith Rajesh Kumar, Pascal Stappen.
CL-35
For The Hearthscape, the CL-35 team reimagined laundry, enabling sharing tasks in a community – saving water, energy and time. Everyone’s items are kept separate via stackable color-coded baskets, while the “Pod” accessory enables residents to collaborate, access machines, and obtain alerts. CL-35 turns laundry into a social ritual of trust and shared responsibility, fostering connection while promoting sustainability.
Student design team: Clara Häggström Germann, Benedikt Herzau, Aryaman Kashyup.
HUG
For The Mindful Home, the HUG team focused on comfort and relaxation at home. They developed a suite of personalized cooling and heating solutions using textiles with wires woven into the threads. The small, weighted Turtle feels like cuddling a cat sleeping on your chest; the long, flexible Koala cools or warms you on the couch or at your desk; and the large, soft Bear is for sinking into at the end of a long day.
Student design team: Johanna Huse, Constantin Schott, Zhiyuan Jiang, Brandon Escalona
“This project with Electrolux Group sets the bar high for our students,” says Thomas Degn, Associate Professor and Director of MFA Advanced Product Design Program at UID. “To develop a new product for the future home in just four weeks, with feedback from Electrolux experts, puts them on track for success in design.”
The Electrolux Group collaboration with UID is led by Martin Alexanderson, Senior Design Lead, and Timo Mashiyi-Veikkola, Director of Design Research, together with Degn from UID. Previous themes included designs for: people with disabilities (2024), an artificial intelligence-assisted home robot as the primary user (2023), single people living in small spaces (2022), and multi-generational homes (2021).
